OREGON, Wis. — Five-time ASA Midwest Tour champion Ty Majeski picked up his third Joe Shear Classic 200 victory, collecting a check for $15,000 along with a $3,600 bounty placed on him by World Wide Technology Raceway on Sunday afternoon at Madison Int’l Speedway.
The Seymour, Wis., driver also claimed his 36th win in the Tour, which is poetic as the race was dedicated to the famous short track driver who competed with car number 36.
To add more to it, Majeski competed in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Kansas Speedway on Saturday night. His Thorsports #98 Ford truck crew chief is Joe Shear Jr., the son of who the race was honoring on Sunday.
“Pretty cool, I didn’t realize this was my 36th win,” Majeski said.“That’s neat, it was just meant to be I guess. The car was good, especially after we put tires on and made a little adjustment and that made the car drive like I really wanted too, the speed correlated with it.”
Three-time ASA Midwest Tour champion Casey Johnson paced the early part of the 200-lap event.
The only actual caution occurred on lap 50 when John DeAngelis Jr. had a tire go down and made small contact with the outside wall.
On the restart, defending ASA Midwest Tour champion Gabe Sommers worked his way to the front and took over the top spot from Johnson and pulled out to a big lead until the controlled caution on lap 112.
Everyone, except Ryan Farrell, came in to put on two fresh tires and fuel up for the finish of the race.
Farrell and Sommers led the field to the restart on lap 120. Majeski restarted behind Sommers and the two quickly got past Farrell on the restart and started to battle for the lead.
Majeski would make the winning move on lap 136 and pull away from Sommers.
After the final restart for the last controlled caution, Majeski and Sommers would renew their battle for the lead on lap 179.
Majeski would pull away to a 2.244-second victory over Sommers and Brent Edmunds.
“I’m happy with the run, it’s a good start to the season and it puts Slinger behind us,” Sommers said after the race. “It feels good to have a good run here and we just have to build off of it for the next one.”
Brent Edmunds was making his fifth ever start in the ASA Midwest Tour and was happy to get a podium finish in the Joe Shear Classic, a race he didn’t think he would ever compete in his career.
“To be honest no,” Edmunds answered when asked if he thought he would be on the podium. “Ironically enough, my dad told me about five years ago that we would race supers and just run limited (late models). Toby Race Products gave us a good opportunity to get into a really good race car and it has completely reinvented my career. I grew up watching Nathan Haseleu here at Madison as a kid and to me this race is my Daytona 500, to to be on the podium here is so special.”
Johnson finished fourth with Justin Mondiek rounding out the top five.
15-year-old Ty Fredrickson, driving car No. 36, was today’s fast qualifier and finished sixth in his second 200-lap race in his young career.